djnoll—“This is a radical idea, but I believe that within the millions of young adults in this nation there is a spark of hope still burning, and only they can fan it to life by becoming truly active, with guidance from older progressives and independents to help them.  It is their future and their country as well, and maybe it is time they had a say in how it is governed.’
  A great and encouraging paragraph—and not at all radical in terms of a country that in its past has always been able to come up with large numbes of sincere and intelligent people from all classes who have been able to reclaim their country when necessary.  Great achievements were accomplished in the labor movement, the women’s movements, the social and civil rights movements of the 60s, the peace movement (Test Ban Treaty and Freeze) and most recently the Gay Rights Movement.There is experience and leadership and there is, and will continue to increase, the will to do for ourselves what was promised and then cruelly withdrawn or denied or postponed—whatever the failure is called.Movements that are related but now separated will unite and rise to the occasions.  People who have never acted before will be empelled by the recognition of needs to join in.

Until people stop voting for evil they will continue to get it. So don’t be surprised when you do. Obama is evil in just a nicer smiling avuncular package. Don’t get fooled again.

coco, January 8 at 12:09 pm #

Most of the educated population is onto the republican spin and pin entertainment propaganda and rhetoric. Its not hard to notice we went from a burnt out hypocrite to a brain in the White House with the election of Obama. Register independent and vote against a republican.

Some of us, I trust, are also on to the empty rhetoric and hopeless incompetence of the floundering Democratic majority as well as the fact that this “brain in the White House” has simply carried on far to many policies of the “burnt out hypocrite” who preceded him.

Certainly registering indie is a decent suggestion, but voting for something rather than against something else is a far better strategy I think. When one votes against the GOP I believe that a recommendation to close ones eyes, hold ones breath and vote Democrat. No solution whatsoever. Far better to engage ones brain and vote for that candidate whose rhetoric most aptly indicates ones own belief system.

I don’t care how much time has passed it is what Obama has done and that is to keep most of what Bush/Cheney had set up. Get it yet? You sound too blind to the realities to make anything but a cultish plead for him. Nothing to reality.

Which part of the secret prisons do you like? The secrecy that is continuing keeping out the “transparency” he promised? The other kinds of torture going on in them? Gitmo—-no money or plan to close it and even if it is it will be just transferred to some other place. Voted for the war and to make more war that kills innocents and promotes terrorism (against us!)

Please inform us of what he has done that actually helps us and not his constituents, the corporations?

Its beyond me how anyone could feel good about passing judgement on Obama and his administration after less than a year in office. Come 2010 my vote will be with them. And all the propaganda and rhetoric that a lot of people like to dump in my ear on these blogs will be considered to be the rubbish that it is. Tax cuts for the rich and the propaganda that supports it would say and do anything to wreck the progress of the Obama administration. 95% of the republican party are halfwits that are controlled by republican propaganda and rhetoric. They know nothing of true fact. I would urge everyone to review the true meaning of liberal and register as an independent and vote against a republican.

djnoll,

America needs desperately to get itself out of mess it is in and as you say the next congressional elections could play a part in this.

But how do you get the right candidate elected? Perhaps the rule of thumb might be to encourage people to vote for the candidates who receive the LEAST campaign contributions in the hope that they might avoid being corrupted by those whose money seems to corrupt all parties in in US politics.

Perhaps activists should concentrate efforts on exposing campaign financing and advocating on behalf of the least funded candidate in the absence of more solid criteria on which to establish a preference. What candidates say is obviously not related to their actions and therefore should be ignored; at least that is one lesson Obama has driven home to me.

In response to the lies and bad behavior from conservatives, those within the corporate media establishment and without, I think we need to echo Lincoln’s comment, the one where he shuddered to think there was a just God. Perhaps reflecting the failures of our establishment media (which conservatives will nonetheless attack as “liberal”), much of the information in this column is news to me. Like me, I hope you do not waste much time on unworthy sources of information. Personally, I do not find the mendacity and the irresponsibilty entertaining in the least.

America’s real terrorism problem is not partisan. It is thoroughly bipartisan.

American support for Israel is the primary source of the extreme hatred and suicidal terrorism directed against the US. Our Zionist-muzzled mainstream “news” media ignore the overwhelming evidence for this.

For example, we know that the suicide bomber who killed those CIA agents in Afghanistan was radicalized specifically by the bloodthirsty 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza, which was frantically endorsed by US politicians, Democrats and Republicans, very much including Obama, who are slavishly obedient to Israel:

The alleged bomber’s brother told AFP that he had been radicalised by the devastating offensive which Israel launched on Gaza in December 2008.“The Israeli military operation in Gaza affected Humam and he wanted to join doctors of the Jordan Medical Association as a volunteer and go to Gaza,” said his brother…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/wl_mideast_afp/afghnistanunrestusjordanqaeda

One of the major aspects of he last administration was their ability to gain victory by way of defeat. 9/11/01 was a monumental failure of security but they won by getting so many national security measures that affected us more than our would be enemies. From Homeland Security to suspension of habeas corpus they got most of what they had on their authoritarian wish list. That with more to come. And without firing or bringing up on charges anyone for that failure! How will the stealth right wing Obama handle it? We shall be watching.

“Indeed, right-wing exploitation of terrorism tends to serve the terrorists in several important ways: elevating them from a gang of fanatical criminals to the status of a sovereign power; echoing their worldview of a clash between Islam and modernity; and enhancing their prestige as a mortal threat to civilization.”

But then our would be rulers want us to be assaulted from all sides, too weak and confused to stop them from ripping the heart out of our Republic to replace it with a corporate theocracy as they are doing right now. Once the remnants of the old Republic have been swept away then they can operate much more efficiently! Right now they kluge it where ever it won’t help them but will empower us. We see it all the time. [“inverse totalitarianism”]

Global climate change also works in their favor because they know it will cause wars and unrest and make it easier for them to overthrow the Bill of Rights to get their oligarchic dictatorship. Then they can evangelize the world out of the barrel of one of our guns or robot h/k’s.

As Naomi Klein points out in the closing pages of her book “The Shock Doctrine” our gov’t now cannot function without corporate help. Very bad for us, very good for them. When will the next failure empower those who wish us ill for their gain?

Personally, I am sick and tired of being told to be afraid or of being subjected to the GOP treating me like a coward.  The only cowardly Americans I see are those who buy into FOX News propaganda and the members of Congress. 

The rest of us are not afraid of Al Quaeda.  We have seen who and what they are and we have not gone shopping or cowered under our beds - we have enlisted, we have voted, we have become active in our government again. 

We have shown Karl Rove that we believe that he is wrong, but he is too arrogant and stupid to believe it.  We have allowed ourselves to the luxury of following a fool for over 8 years, and it has destroyed this nation almost completely. 

Now we have a President who many hoped would lead us out of this insanity, only to find that he has put his faith and trust in the wrong people, but will not do anything to change it when it is shown as misplaced.  In other words, he cannot lead because he cannot actually transform what he has the ability to transform, but won’t.

But, we the American People, have the chance to transform this nation yet again in 2010.  It is time to put people in Congress who are answerable to the people, not the military/religious/industrial complex.  Put in people who would make the vision of what should be a reality.  We can find men and women among us who are independent, educated, true fiscal and social progressives (not fakes like Pelosi and Reid)from within our society who can become a Congress that will put an end to empire building and start addressing the needs of this nation.

Then we can make it very clear through true activism based on issues, not race or corporate/GOP propaganda,to the President that it is time to clean house, starting with the Clinton Re-treads (including the Clintons) and Rahm Emanuel and his staff of lobbyists.  It is time to put in place people who can actually lead the various departments to meet the needs of the people with good policy, and White House staff who embraced the President’s campaign agenda and will work to implement it.

Of course, this means we must get active once again, for many of us that means as we did in our youth, but also the young people who were out there canvassing, registering, and voting in 2008.  To you I offer a special challenge.  Members of the House need only be over 25 and members of the Senate over 35.  Find those among your contemporaries that have some life experience and education to make them fit to lead, and encourage them to lead at local and state levels, while backing those already in local and state governments to run for the House or Senate.  We need new ideas and new approaches, and people who have the education and experience in life to deal with these issues, despite their youth, may be better able to deal with them than those whose lives have been corrupted by corporate interests and who have stopped caring about anyone but themselves.  Heaven knows it might be better than what we have now.

This is a radical idea, but I believe that within the millions of young adults in this nation there is a spark of hope still burning, and only they can fan it to life by becoming truly active, with guidance from older progressives and independents to help them.  It is their future and their country as well, and maybe it is time they had a say in how it is governed.

Most of the educated population is onto the republican spin and pin entertainment propaganda and rhetoric. Its not hard to notice we went from a burnt out hypocrite to a brain in the White House with the election of Obama. Register independent and vote against a republican.

Mr. Conason,

Quote: “Then again, the Republican exploitative response to terror is as predictable as al-Qaida’s urge to kill.”

Well put.  Like you, personally I don’t see the fact that THIS IS INDEED THE CASE as ironic, strange or even surprising.  It appears concretely indicative of the mentality, corruption and ideology of these types.  Truthfully, it’s more of a sordid hard to swallow reality…, ainna?

The Corporate Media and political class created and use ‘Al-Qaeda’ to keep
Americans afraid, divided, and poor. ” Al-Qaeda” has not killed one American on
American soil since 9/11.Some threat.
If they were capable they would be sniping at us in parking lots,poisoning our
food ,setting fires,sabotaging the electric grid,hijacking trucks and buses to run
us down on crowded city streets,etc. Yet none of this has occurred.
You are more likely to be a victim of an American drunk driver than an
“Al-Qaeda” sleeper cell.Put a breathalyzer in every car.Cheaper than the “War on
Terror”.

The author of this op ed mentions “our composure” in the last paragraph.  what composure?  Tens of thousands of us have no decet job, or lost our house, or had a member injured or killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or can’t pay for scooling, or are overwhelmed with medical bills.  And what little “composure” we might have had left is jarred periodically by inflammatory headlines or wild TV announcements or warnings about Armageddon or Global Warming, or both.
Composure, my eye.  The last thing the government wants us to have is “composure” because then we might be able to thinik straight.

The hysteria is BI-partisan.  I have to agree with Ardee’s assessment in questioning the rationale for the millions (billions, really) wasted in measures and programs we are continually told will make us “safer”, when the truth is, the dangers that we face are a result of our stubbornly and perpetually un-examined foreign policy that is the greatest threat, not only to our alleged “safety”, but to our liberty as well.

“Our rulers make the news, but they do not appear in the news, not as they really are-not as a political class, a governing establishment, a body of leaders with great and pervasive powers, with deep, often dark, ambitions. In the American republic the fact of oligarchy is the most dreaded knowledge of all, and our news keeps that knowledge from us. By their subjugation of the press, the political powers in America have conferred on themselves the greatest of political blessings-Gyges’ ring of invisibility. And they have left the American people more deeply baffled by their own country’s politics than any people on earth. Our public realm lies steeped in twilight, and we call that twilight news.”
(Walter Karp)

“A good part of the U.S. public, astonishingly ignorant about everything beyond its shores, fears and disdains all that it does not understand. The country that has done more than any other to develop information technology, produces television news that barely touches on world events except to confirm that foreigners tend to be terrorists and ingrates.”
(Eduardo Galeano - Upside Down)

“We now live in a state of permanent war - a global arms industry, apparently the largest single international business, must have its products used up so more can be sold. There must be profits for the capitalists and jobs for the proles… Are we not still in Caligula’s Rome?”
(New Internationalist magazine)

“Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country, for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.”
(Howard Zinn)

“The greatest threats to U.S. society are not coming from “terrorists” or “rogue nations” abroad. They are coming from the words and actions of elected officials here at home. Actions of the Department of Justice - emboldened by the USA-Patriot Act passed by Congress last fall - threaten to turn the U.S. into a permanent security state.
Likewise, the greatest threats to global peace - and to human development and security worldwide - are coming from U.S. policymakers carrying out their lawful duties.”
(Friends Committee on National Legislation)

“It is ... necessary to whip up the population in support of foreign adventures. Usually the population is pacifist, just like they were during the First World War. The public sees no reason to get involved in foreign adventures, killing, and torture. So you have to whip them up. And to whip them up you have to frighten them.”
(Noam Chomsky)

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed ...”
(H. L. Mencken)

“Defense becomes offense, the protection of your children becomes the murder of another’s, his threat becomes your preemption. You kill to stop the killing. Then you wonder, Are you the victim, or the slayer? But you are both.”
(James Carroll)

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
(Benjamin Franklin, 1759)

If we “lived in a confident, politically mature society”, as I see it, we would not be involved in other people’s wars, or engaging in entangling alliances with other countries that lead to more wars, or trying to build and maintain an empire while clearly declining in power, prestige and influence.

Time for this country to bow gracefully off the world stage—otherwise, I fear we’ll collapse onstage, and have to be carried off, if we can’t drag ourselves painfully off the stage.

More claptrap…. Is it just me or is every fricken’ person that writes anything in a main stream publication just a sock puppet for the Zionists???

And I take objection with Mr. Conason denigrating the alleged bomber by calling him a “dim college dropout”...  That’s not very nice at all…. He is a Freedom Fighter and was acting out against an Evil Empire the only way he knew how…. I mean, was he supposed to get into his 3 billion dollar Trident Submarine and lob a few cruise missles at US???  Cut the guy some slack for god’s sake….

The police in Netherlands determined that the Panty Bomber did not have any accomplices, he was on his own and yet we are being told that Al-Qaida is responsible. I, with all the hysteria surrounding this bogus organization and how well-trained they are, expect them to do better than trying to set their underwear on fire.

Republicans are able to stand on their ridiculous assertions only because Democrats are incompetent and seemingly unable to respond with rationale and clarity.

The truth is that we are spending hundreds of millions on a security system that allows a man without luggage or even passport to board an international flight. The truth is that Rove cares little for truth and seemingly fails to remember that those who bombed the Trade Towers the first time are rotting in a Federal prison after a civil trial, as is the so-called “shoe bomber” as well.

Our political arena is a ridiculous farce and our representatives clowns.

Fantastic article! Yes! There is no left, no right, just two bunches of crooks duking it out for the spoils of our labor. Unite, eliminate the parties and we’re 90% of the way there!